“More than a shirt, feeding a passion for life”

Thursday, 24 May 2012

Many congratulations to Barry Lenton for winning the National Game Awards fan of the year!

Barry has now been recognised for his incredible effort in collecting 6,000 shirts for KitAid. Paul Fairclough, England C (non-league) Manager also presented Barry with a framed certificate from Graham Taylor on behalf of KitAid.

Following the ceremony, we are now looking to work with Paul and the Sodje brothers who have set up a foundation in Nigeria.

Well done Barry from all at KitAid, an amazing achievement - keep up the fantastic work!

Wednesday, 9 May 2012

KitAid is delighted to have started a partnership with the Sacred Sports Foundation.

Sacred Sports Foundation was founded by Keith Alexander the ex-City manager who died in 2010. The foundation is now run by his brother Delroy Alexander and works to increase opportunity and social inclusion for Caribbean youth. On a recent trip to the UK, Delroy approached us to help source spare kit for their programmes in St Lucia.

Speaking about the SSF programmes in St Lucia Delroy pointed out that behind the glossy travel pictures there are challenges in the Caribbean similar to those in other less developed areas of the world

“Imagine waking up in paradise and watching a visitor splash on a costly bottle of sun tan lotion whilst you struggle to eke out a meagre living on less than $5 a day” said Delroy “But that is the reality for far too many of our youth”

“Several of our grass roots community programmes desperately require kit” he continued. “we utilise any kit donations effectively and really believe they can help change the lives of our youth”.

Great to hear from Kebby who has been working with Alive and Kicking Zambia, working hard to drive social change through sport.

He has recently distributed 5 balls to the 21 Alive and Kicking coaches, as well as 8 sets of jerseys to a number of teams: Malalo Queens, Malalo Under 14 , Medics, Lubengele, Star, Boca Jrs, Magoma and Crushtek.

Friday, 4 May 2012

It was great to hear from Eugene Murangwa yesterday who has recently travelled to Rwanda where he was able to distribute some kit. Players at the Dream Team Football Academy in Kicukiro - Kigali as well as the Gihisi Youth Football Centre in Southern Rwanda are the new owners of Kit that Eugene took over for us.

Tuesday, 1 May 2012

Fantastic news from our friend Joe Arimoso in Zimbabwe at Socius, a Jesuit Mission that run support projects in Zimbabwe. One of the girls at Socius has now been selected to play for the Under 20 National Team! In yet more good news, 6 youngsters from some of the teams that Socius pass our kit on to have been selected to play for the Under 13 team due to go to Warsaw, Poland to play in the VW Junior Masters tournament!!

The following message from Joe really touched us all and is a massive motivation to ensure that our work continues for years to come: "On behalf of all teams who have benefited from KitAid, I would like to express our gratitude and to let you know that your help with kit has had direct impact on a number of kids from disadvantaged backgrounds. Now we understand you slogan, “Its not just a shirt”…its a little smile and a little window into the future."

Another hugely successful boxing up session took place last Saturday morning. It was great some new faces and some reappearances of familiar faces, so thanks and welcome to Jenny, Louisa, James and the FG crew.Altogether we sent out 93 boxes to Somalia, Gambia, Uganda, Malawi, Zimbabwe and St Lucia. This brings the total sent out so far this year to 287 boxes, close to 11,500 items of kit.

Thanks very much to all involved in last October's Ricky Road Run, a road race held in Rickmansworth. We've just received a cheque totalling a massive £1297.45 which will be invaluable in continuing our quest to put smiles on faces around the world by sharing kit!

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Welcome to KitAid's blog

Registered charity no. 1113968

This little boy in a tattered Liverpool shirt was the catalyst to KitAid in 1998. Following a trip to Tanzania with WaterAid by Derrick Williams, KitAid was formed and the charity has grown steadily over the years from sending one box to the tiny village in Tanzania to this year donating 100,000 football kits to children and adults in some of the poorest countries in the World.

Many of these kits have been loved by children and adults in the UK and are now being loved again by people, thousands of miles away. Bringing us together is the passion for football and big smiles on our faces.